Nintendo Announces Wii Launch Titles

Nintendo is launching is Wii gaming console on November 19…but everyone knows a new gaming system is only as appealing as the games people can play on it. To that end, Nintendo has announced the titles which will be available for the Wii within the console’s “launch window,” loosely defined as the system’s first five weeks of availability, although many titles will be available simultaneously with the Wii’s launch.

“Developers worldwide have enhanced Wii’s launch library of new games with countless new ways to play,” says George Harrison, Nintendo of America’s senior VP of marketing and corporate communications, in a statement. “Whether you pick a completely new property or a classic franchise, the Wii experience draws you in.”

The lineup includes 32 titles developed for the Wii—many based on familiar Nintendo franchises—as well as 30 classic games originally developed for the NES, Super NES, Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis, and TurboGrafx16 systems which can be downloaded to play on the Wii’s backward-compatible Virtual Console. In a design similar to Microsoft’s Xbox Live Marketplace, Virtual Console games can be purchased by redeeming “Wii points,” with 100 Wii points costing $1, available in $20 increments. Game titles for older consoles will range in price from 500 to 1,000 Wii points, depending on the original platform, putting their real-world pricing between $5 and $10 per title. Nintendo plans to roll out additional Wii and classic games as the Wii enters the market, raising interest in the platform and encouraging fans of its classic games to set aside a budget for repurchasing favorite past titles.

Here is Nintendo’s preliminary list of Wii and Virtual Console titles to be available in the Wii launch window: